Prime Minister David Cameron was accompanied by Crawley MP Henry Smith as he visited one of the town’s successful businesses.

Mr Smith joined Mr Cameron on a visit to Manor Royal firm Vent-Axia this week, which was being lauded as a successful example of a company which has brought manufacturing back to the UK from abroad.

Prime Minister David Cameron visits the headquarters of ventilation manufacturer, Vent-Axia in Crawley, East Sussex where he met and chatted with staff, as the company has recently created 26 new jobs by moving production back to the UK from China and he also saw a cheque written by Winston Churchill to pay for a fan for 10 Downing St in 1945.' PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo.

Before flying out of Gatwick to address the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Cameron was given a tour of Vent Axia and said Crawley was “leading the way” when it came to helping restore Britain’s economic fortunes.

He added: “I’m using Vent Axia as an example of something I will be talking about [in Switzerland] which is businesses bringing back to the UK production that had previously been taken overseas and tried out elsewhere.

“I think with the low tax rates we have, a highly trained workforce and an apprenticeship programme, these are all reasons for people to bring jobs, investment and growth back to Britain – and here at Vent Axia that’s exactly what they are doing.

“Somewhere between 20 and 35 jobs are coming back to Crawley and this is a far more wider trend happening in the UK that we want to encourage.

“It won’t happen automatically. The Government is cutting taxes, making it easier to employ people, backing business and restoring Britain’s economic fortunes – that’s what it’s all about.

“Crawley is leading the way.”

Mr Smith said: “Had it been a longer visit, we would have done much more.

“But it was a themed visit about bringing jobs back to the UK. Unfortunately, there was not time to do more.”

Regarding Downing Street’s decision to organise the visit to Crawley, Mr Smith siad: “Last year, I raised in the House of Commons that Vent-Axia had brought jobs back to the UK from China.

“Downing Street picked it up from there.

“I think Crawley really is one of those parts of the country that is doing extremely well when it comes to its economic vibrancy.

“When you look at the range of companies we have across Crawley - Nestle, Varian, Elekta, Novo Nordisk - we’ve got a lot of really first class, internationally known companies choosing Crawley as their base and that’s good for keeping the economy varied.”